


You and the Moon and Neptune

by Xazz



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Android, Android AU, Artificial Intelligence, Fluff, Future AU, Gen, Kissing, Lighthouse, M/M, Military AU, Minor Angst, Modern AU, Ocean, Robot, Robot AU, Robot Feels, Robots with feelings, Sea, robot altair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-04-25 05:24:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4948342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xazz/pseuds/Xazz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After getting on his CO's bad side Malik is sent to a derelict lighthouse out in the middle of nowhere as punishment. There he accidentally reactivates an old war-time android who used to be part of a grand Array. Altair is, he thinks, the last of the androids still active from back then until he receives a message from his long lost 'brother'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You and the Moon and Neptune

The sky over the steel colored sea was vibrant to the point of irony. To the point of mockery. There were no clouds except for tiny mountains of sleek grey slug shapes that clung to the horizon like damp wool. The sea was calm and while Malik couldn’t hear the sound of it on the rock beach he could imagine it. He was watching the sea, ignoring the driver who drove in silence. The road from the base out to the end of the peninsula was a long one. He didn’t want to be on this damn assignment. He was better than this. He knew he was, his CO knew he was. Yet here he was.

His friends mocked him for it. Said he was getting off easy for sleeping with the Captain’s kid. How the hell was he supposed to know the Captain even _had_ a kid in the first place? Psychic powers or something probably. He didn’t have those. Maybe he should look into getting some. It was getting safer now, the neural implants caused death only about thirty percent of the time. Better than seventy it was ten years ago.

The road curved away from the beach and up to the top of the bluff where the lighthouse was. It was a tall, old, building. It had been built back during an old war and had once been part of a communication array that spanned the continent. That was almost a century ago. The war and the lighthouse were relics of the past and now the lighthouse was just a lighthouse. Decommissioned and emptied of its mechanisms. Now it just had its beacon to guide ships and hovercraft to safer waters. The most advanced thing in the tower was apparently the beacon and the radio inside it. From what Malik had heard the TV was awful. Command kept you bored out here. The lighthouse was a non abusive punishment with tours lasting two months at a time. A car came out once a week with supplies: food, beer, jerk magazines (if you were friends with the delivery guy at least), any fresh orders, and of course entertainment in the form of books or, again if you were lucky, a holo-lense of something actually interesting.

Malik was dreading his stay here.

The car pulled up to the lighthouse and he got out. The driver didn’t. “You aren’t coming?” Malik asked.

“Everything you need is inside, including how to work the beacon and radio. You’ll be fine. I’ll be back in a few days,” the driver said shortly. Well, so much for making friends with the driver. He grabbed his bag from back of the car and closed the door. The car shifted gears and rolled away.

Malik looked up at the lighthouse. It was white stone of some sort, maybe concrete and painted. He had no idea. The door was open and he went in.

The place didn’t smell abandoned at least. It did smell like armpit and old socks and Malik would have preferred the dry old smell of abandonment to that. He wrinkled his nose and went about opening the windows along the bottom floor of the lighthouse. Anything to get rid of that fucking smell.

The bottom of the lighthouse was the living quarters. There was a kitchen, a bathroom, a living and work space, and a bedroom with a bed that squeaked when he sat on it. He checked the kitchen. It was pretty well stocked with the basics. Rice, noodles, butter, dry cheese, dehydrated milk, a few gallons of fresh drinking water, some slightly stale crackers, and some very sad looking veggies in the fridge crisper. The freezer was empty save for some ice trays. There were some dried foods and things in cans in the cupboards. No beer. Figured. The couch was sort of comfortable and the TV was small and old but turned on. It didn’t have reception but Malik saw some movie tabs off to the side. Well, at least Command wasn’t _that_ big of dicks. Hopefully there was something actually good to watch.

Last of all was the work bench where the radio was located. It was the only piece of modern tech in the entire living area. On the table with it was a folder that Malik opened and flipped through boredly. It just had his assignment in it. Basically it amounted to ‘never turn the radio off and monitor any calls sent to the frequency it was set to’ and ‘turn the beacon on at night and off in the morning’.

This was going to be a very long two months.

Malik spent the rest of the day trying to make himself busy with getting settled in and cleaning up after the last guy here on assignment. He found cleaning supplies that looked like they’d never been touched and cleaned the entire place. By the time he was done it was getting dark and if nothing else the lighthouse didn’t smell like feet.

He checked the folder and read the instructions on how to light the beacon. He groaned aloud when he saw that it was a manual activation and he had to climb to the top of the tower to turn it on and off. He was sure Command had done this on purpose to make sure this assignment wasn’t _too_ relaxing to the soldiers stationed here.

Pricks.

Putting on his boots Malik started climbing the inside stairs. About half way up he had to sit down and catch his breath. Malik was in no insignificant amount of shape either. These stairs were just _murder_. Would it kill Command to put in a fucking elevator. Yeah, probably. Once he’d gotten his wind back he finished climbing the stairs and reached the top of the lighthouse.

“Woah,” he breathed when he finally stood up on the observation deck. He had an uninterrupted view of the vast sea and sky and the jut of land of the peninsula. From up here he could see the sun as a fiery orange ball and the slug clouds in the distance had grown a bit into cotton balls and were the color of black eyes. The sky itself was orange and pink and green woven into a deep indigo and purple. He stood there, watching the sun set until the sun had burned a green spot in his vision.

Malik turned to the beacon. The huge mechanism that made the lighthouse a lighthouse. He’d forgotten the instructions downstairs and no way he was going down and up again tonight. Couldn’t be that hard to figure out. The military was full of simpletons. Simpletons who got into trouble and got punished and sent to the lighthouse. It had to be easy enough for those morons. Malik walked around the base of the beacon and found a control panel.

“Well shit,” he said. Maybe he should have brought the instructions. There were several switches, a button, and a touch screen. The touch screen was black and touching it did nothing. He pushed the button fearfully, like doing so would cause the light to explode. Nothing happened. “Stupid fucking- moron- absolutely incompetent-“ he muttered to himself and flipped the first switch. Nothing. He tried some switches and pressing the button and the screen in various combinations until he was just flipping and pushing at random. He’d beat this stupid beacon _without_ the instructions.

A tone startled him and the touch screen came on. For a second it flashed a word and then it simply displayed an antique lightbulb. One of those ancient incandescent things with the filament across the center. He’d only ever seen them as symbols, they’d been totally phased out centuries ago and now everyone used LEDs and florescent. Cleaner. When the screen displayed the lightbulb the beacon lit and started to spin with a soft groaning noise of functioning machinery. He pressed the screen and the lightbulb on the screen became unlit, the sound of machinery winding down. Another touch and the lightbulb lit, the beacon continuing its pass across the oncoming darkness.

Not so hard.

Work complete Malik went back downstairs and read over the instructions again. He’d been _supposed_ to flip all the switches up while holding down the button to get the beacon to turn off and flip them all down while holding the button to turn it off. The screen physically turned the light on and off. Well, he’d figured out something else so that was all that mattered.

Malik made himself some dinner. Pasta with butter and cheese with some water to wash it down. After that he tried the movie tabs he’d seen before. He looked at each one and frowned continuously. They were all war movies. He was a soldier. He didn’t want to _watch_ war movies. He’d just come from a combat tour not six weeks ago. Last thing he wanted was to be reminded about war in any way. Movies were a bust.

He turned to the books available. He found one that looked interesting and started reading. He read for a few hours before finally going to bed. The bed squealed and squeaked loudly when he laid down and tried to find a comfortable position. The floor might have been better. At least the floor didn’t complain about you laying on it. Finally he figured something out and fell asleep, trying not to move.

In the morning, after breakfast of cereal with dehydrated milk, and some coffee, Malik took the long trek up to the top of the lighthouse. He turned off the beacon and came back down. Then he spent the rest of the day laying around and telling himself he was on vacation and deserved a break from waking up at ass early in the morning to run drills and pretend he still wanted to be here. As soon as he could he was getting the _hell_ out this place. 

He managed to convince himself for a few days that he was on vacation. Then the food runner came with fresh supplies. Toilet paper, paper towels, food, took Malik’s dirty clothes to be washed and gave him new regulation ones. It wasn’t the same guy who’d brought Malik here. He tried to talk to them but the Captain must have been pissed about what he’d done still because they didn’t talk to him and just gave him generic answers. Meaning they weren’t supposed to talk to him. After the delivery they left quickly, leaving Malik alone in the lighthouse again. After that it didn’t feel like much of a vacation.

Later that night Malik was laying in bed trying to sleep. From outside the bedroom he could hear something. A very soft, concerned, something coming from the living area. He wanted to ignore it but remembered his orders. He was to monitor any radio transmissions that came through. Cursing a bit he hauled himself out of bed and left his bedroom in just his underwear.

“Hello?” a voice said over the radio. “Hello. Is anyone there?” They almost sounded afraid. Confused might have been a better way to call it. Malik sat in front of the radio and turned on the lamp. He checked the frequency and the time and logged it in the notebook as ordered. “Hello? Can anyone hear me?”

Malik checked the instructions to see if he was allowed to answer inquires. He didn’t see anything explicitly saying he _wasn’t_ allowed, so he pulled the mic towards his mouth. He had to hold down the button on the stand to be heard. “This is the lighthouse of the Masyaf military base. Identify yourself.”

Silence for a moment then. “Oh! Someone is here. I thought I was alone.”

“Identify yourself.”

“Altair- I am Altair,” they said, sounding unsure, like it was a name they were unused to.

“Altair of?”

“Of?”

“What ship are you on? What port do you call your home?”

“I am not on a ship. At least I don’t think I am. Unless they moved me while I was sleeping. I’m not sure. Do you know where I am?”

Malik stared at the radio. “Altair, can you tell me where you are?”

“Home, of course,” he said. “If it doesn’t sound strange, can I ask the year?”

“It is strange,” Malik said, “but the year is twenty-one fifty-six.”

“Oh… oh my. I was asleep a lot longer than I thought.”

“Sir. If this is a prank I’m going to have to ask you to stop. This is an official military channel and only ships passing through this area may flag this frequency.”

“I know,” Altair said. “This isn’t a prank. Very sorry to have disturbed you. This is just the only channel available to me now. Circs… Everything’s all broken. What am I supposed to do now?”

“I would suggest sleeping off whatever drugs you might be on and not contacting this frequency again,” Malik growled.

“But this is _my_ frequency,” Altair said. “Why don’t you get another one instead? I was here first. Not you.”

“This is an official military installation and an official military frequency-

“I know,” Altair said. “But this is my frequency. This is _my_ lighthouse. You shouldn’t be here anymore. It was decommissioned… _I_ was decommissioned. Circs— Can’t believe they actually went through with it,” he petered out at the end.

Malik sat forward in the chair a bit, gripping the stand of the mic so hard his knuckles were white. “Altair,” he said slowly. “Where are you?”

“Right where I’m supposed to be. Better question is where are _you_ and what are you doing in my lighthouse? Only authorized personnel are allowed access to this facility under orders of the Emperor.”

Malik couldn’t breathe. He also couldn’t really believe what he was hearing. What the actual _hell_ had he stumbled onto. “I’m part of the Masyaf military base,” he said.

“Oh its still there? I thought it’d be like the rest of this place, decommissioned.”

Malik licked his lips. “Altair. Where are you?” he asked again.

“First floor, of course,” Altair said.

Malik jerked and looked over his shoulder. There was no one here but him. “That’s impossible. I’m on the ground floor.” Shit what if this was one of those things some psychics talked about? Passing energy from long ago that showed up and started interacting with the living. It usually resulted in hauntings. How the hell had he never heard that the lighthouse was haunted!?

“I said first floor. Ground floor is two up,” he said like it was inconsequential. “Elevator looks broken though. Damn thing was always a safety hazard.” Silence and then, “Ah, we do have stairs. I could never find these before.”

Malik just about leapt out of his chair. Except he didn’t know _where_ the hell there would be stairs leading down, or an elevator for that matter. Instead he just sat there, gripping the mic stand. “You’re coming up stairs?”

“Yes. Of course,” Altair said. “I want to see what’s happened the other two floors. Huh. Second floor is cleared out. Guess they just got lazy on the first floor.”

“Altair,” Malik said.

“Yes?”

“I would… would you not come upstairs?”

Previously he’d heard walking, now he didn’t. “Why not?”

Malik didn’t want to admit it but he did, “This is sort of freaking me out. It’s night out…”

“Oh. Right. Ha! I forgot how easily you humans scare. Very well. I’m going back downstairs. I will wait till it’s light out and things are less threatening for you meat balls.”

“Meat— I’m not a meat ball,” Malik said sourly.

“Of course,” Altair said. “Goodnight, lighthouse.”

“Altair?” Nothing. “Altair are you still there?”

“Yes. I am just waiting until morning. Goodnight,” they said again. When Malik tried again no further correspondence was forthcoming. He waited several minutes before he was satisfied whoever this Altair was wasn’t coming upstairs. He went back to bed and laid awake for at least an hour, too nervous to sleep, before time caught up with him and he crashed.

He woke in the morning and went about the routine he’d started to establish. Breakfast and then go up to the beacon to turn it off. He wrote last night off as a weird dream since when he checked the log book all he saw was a time but no other information like he was supposed to log. 

Malik was coming down the stairs when he heard the radio go off. “Hello? Hello? Is it daylight out yet?” Malik froze on the stairs and stared at the radio. “Oh, you might still be sleeping. Apologies.”

Malik went down to the ground floor and picked up the mic. “Uh… its morning,” he said awkwardly.

“It is? Excellent,” then silence. Malik was too nervous to make other contact. Instead he changed his clothes and left the lighthouse all together. Up on the top of the bluff the wind tugged at his clothes and hair teasingly. He’d left half the windows open so he could still see inside and he waited. If some sort of weird something showed up he was willing to run back to the base if he had to. If it was freaky he’d do it gladly.

He waited a minute or so and then from the floor a man climbed out from a hidden door. Where the hell had that been? Malik hadn’t _seen_ a trap door. The man closed the trap door and looked around. He was about Malik’s age, lithe, with brown hair and average to attractive features. He wore an old military uniform like he saw in archive photos of the war when the lighthouse would have been in use as part of the nation-wide communication array. It was a bit faded in color but otherwise pristine. They went over to the radio, changed the frequency, and started looking around. Altair poked around the kitchen, looked at the books on the shelves and briefly examined the TV and movie tabs. He glanced into Malik’s room but didn’t enter. Then he looked around with a confused look.

“Hello?” Altair called. “Anyone here? Well. I know you are. Circs, are you still scared meat ball? I’m not going to hurt you,” he almost sounded like he was about to laugh.

What a dick. Malik went to the door and opened it. “How am I supposed to know you aren’t some weird psychopath who likes freaking people out in the middle of the night before you murder them,” Malik said, only poking his head inside.

“Ah. At last, a face to the voice,” Altair said. He wasn’t smiling but his face was pleasant to look at. “Who are you?”

“Sergeant Malik al-Sayf,” Malik opened the door all the way. “Who are you?”

“I was given the designation; Altair. This is my lighthouse and you shouldn’t be here.”

“This place has been abandoned for like, a hundred years,” Malik said.

“I can tell. They gutted everything, but left me here. Very rude of them.”

“Wait… left you here?”

“Yes. I guess they thought I’d never wake up. To be fair I had quite a shock when they turned off the array,” he frowned. “Its so quiet now.”

Malik’s head was spinning. “Wait wait. Stop. Who are you?”

“I told you.”

“Okay then I guess _what_ are you?”

“I’m the lighthouse keeper,” he said. “I attend the beacon and did for sixty years before the Eden Array was shut down. Unnecessary they said. Heh. Guess we were all unnecessary to them in the end.”

Malik felt stupid, “You aren’t human?”

“Circs, of course not. I’m an android.”

“Androids are illegal,” he said. People felt too much sympathy towards androids for them to be useful. Any humanoid robots couldn’t have human faces, at least not realistic human faces. He’d seen his fair share of fetish bots with unrealistically beautiful faces with huge eyes and tiny mouths and noses and wild colored hair on the internet. So most companies just didn’t make humanoid robots with that limitation.

“Yes. But if you’re a member of the military you know they do illegal things all the time,” Altair said with a shrug.

“You seem really life-like for a robot. Are you really one?”

“Yes.”

Malik hesitated, “I don’t believe you. You look like a guy.”

“I’m an android,” he said. "If it's been a hundred years a very out of date robot." He frowned like he was thinking. "I bet the others are still sleeping," he said sort of to himself.

"What are you doing here?" Malik asked. "Like... Why would they need a lifelike android to watch over a lighthouse."

"Because Command said so," Altair shrugged. "And if I was here they didn't need anyone else to maintain this out of the way part of the Array. They could just talk to me over the radio and when needed could send humans out to work with me or offer a 'human touch' in looking at that data that came through to me. It was all very speciest."

"You're a robot. Not a species," Malik said.

"If there is a pool of individuals of a large enough size they can be a species," Altair said. "Trust me, I'm a robot and have access to the Internet."

"There's internet out here? How?" Shit if Malik had know that he'd have brought his tablet.

"I generate wifi," Altair said. Well that explained why there was no internet before. "And use it. Nice contained system," he patted his chest and it sounded like a full Tupperware.

"Okay," he said slowly. "Well what were you doing here?"

"Classified," Altair said.

"The war's been over like a century," Malik said.

"Classified," Altair said again.

Malik sighed. "Okay, whatever," he said and finally closed the door. "So you aren't going to kill me at least. Right?"

"Not unless you try to kill me," Altair said.

"Which is stupid since you're a robot," Malik said and sat down on the couch. "Why are you so lifelike? If you were supposed to man this place alone why do you look and act so human?"

"I don't know. Just the way I was made. We were all made like this."

"All?"

"All the androids stationed at the points of the Array," Altair said. "They were all made life like. No idea why," he shrugged.

"You're so... Smart though. You act human. How?"

"AI," Altair said.

"Also illegal," Malik said off handily.

"Yes, very. Yet here I am," Altair said. 

Altair squinted at him then sighed. "Okay looks like I have an android roommate for this deployment. Weird, but okay." Altair smiled for the first time his fake yellow eyes seeming to glow a bit. Fucking creepy. "Just stay out of the bedroom and we'll be fine."

"Okay," Altair said.

— 

For the rest of the week Malik worked on getting his head around the fact that Altair was an android. If nothing else it made his assignment easier since Altair went up and down the lighthouse stairs with ease and was never winded. It meant Malik didn't have to worry about the beacon anymore except to hear Altair complain that they'd taken all the automation out of his lighthouse.

When the supply car came Malik couldn't wait to see them. Being stuck in a house all day with a know it all android was about as bad as being stuck in a house alone. The soldier and he talked as they carried boxes of supplies into the lighthouse. Altair wasn't there. He might have been upstairs at the beacon, watching the ocean. Why an android would feel the need to watch the ocean he had no idea but also didn't see it important to ask. This supply runner was a lot more chatty than the other one, which was good. He made some slight comments about maybe getting some better movie tabs for the TV and if they were really good Malik’s tablet from the barracks. They made no promises but when they left Malik felt optimistic.

Only once the car was gone did Altair show himself again. “They gone?” he asked from a few rotations up the stairs. Malik looked up the huge shaft. Altair was looking down at him. “Yeah. Where’d you run off to?”

“Better if no one knows I’m here,” Altair said.

“Why? You’re military property-

“Don’t say it like that,” Altair said. “Bad enough they basically just- just threw me and the others away like we were scrap. How do you think Command would respond to a hundred year old android, which should have been decommissioned, suddenly wasn’t?”

“They’d probably throw a fit. And chew my ass off since it’d be blamed on me some how.”

“They’d turn me off,” Altair said, looking down at Malik with his strange alive eyes. Malik knew it was all circuits but when Altair looked down at him now he almost looked like there was more behind his eyes than just wires and electricity. It almost looked like he had a soul. “I don’t want them to turn me off.”

“Isn’t it the same as sleeping?” Malik asked.

“Is sleeping the same as death?” Altair asked.

“No,” Malik said.

“Answer to your dumb question then,” Altair said.

“I guess. But what’s it matter? You aren’t alive.”

“I think,” Altair said. “I am aware,” he looked around a bit, like he could see through the walls of the lighthouse. “I do everything any human does, I just do it faster. I am alive.”

“You’re a machine,” Malik said.

“You’re a biological mechanism designed to carry around three pound brain that makes all your muscles and nerves move without thought the same way a machine works without thinking. Nature constructed the perfect hunting machine in humans. I am wires and gears and coolant but I’m as much a machine as you. I just carry around a heavier brain,” he smirked.

“Anyone ever tell you you’re a shit head?”

“No.”

“Well you are.” Altair laughed a little. How a robot laughed Malik had no idea. He had no lungs. No vocal cords. Hell he didn’t even have an esophagus. But Altair could still talk and laugh. The only thing he didn’t do was breathe.

“I don’t want to die,” Altair said. “So I don’t want anyone to find me here.”

“Fine. You done waxing yourself?”

“I suppose,” Altair said with a sly quirk of his mouth.

“ _Finally_ ,” and Altair snickered.

—

They were outside. It was Malik’s forth week at the lighthouse. It was day time and the wind was strong at the top of the bluff. It howled against the scraggly grass and whipped at his and Altair’s clothes. Altair had worn the same clothes for the past three weeks without them getting dirty or starting to smell. Malik supposed they wouldn’t. Robots didn’t eat, didn’t sweat, how could he get his clothes smelly? They were standing at the top of the bluff, throwing rocks out into the white capped gun-metal colored sea. Altair could throw rocks a lot further than him.

“So what are you going to do when I leave?” Malik asked as he whipped a rock into the wind and watched it splash into the ocean below. “I only have four weeks left and then my assignment is over. Someone else will show up and find you.”

Altair pitched his rock like a bro ball player and the rock flew out a hundred feet into the surf. “Maybe I’ll leave,” he said. “Maybe I’ll go out to sea.”

“Can you handle that?”

“I don’t know. Would be sort of poetic right.”

“Nothing poetic about suicide,” Malik said.

“You sound like you know.”

“My brother killed himself when he was eighteen,” Malik said. “There was nothing poetic about it.”

Altair studied the ocean unflinchingly. Then he picked up another of the rocks he and Malik had collected for the purpose of throwing them. “Then I guess I’ll leave,” he threw the stone like he was skipping a rock in a stream. It hit the ocean down below and skipped once, twice, three times. “That was a good throw.”

“Yeah it was,” Malik agreed. “Where will you go?”

“Dunno. Look for the rest of my species maybe,” Altair said thoughtfully. “There were three hundred and forty-eight towers in the Array. If I’m still alive, then someone, somewhere, has to still be out there.”

Malik studied Altair like he was the sea. The wind yanked his hair into his eyes but he didn’t try to push it away. Altair kept looking at the horizon like he was going to catch it, like he was going to devour it. “You think so?”

“I hope so. I have to hope… heh. Hope. Such a silly feeling. Such a _human_ feeling.”

“I didn’t know androids could feel hope.”

“Me neither,” Altair grinned and then looked at Malik. “Though I didn’t know I could do a lot of things before I met you. No one before I went to sleep treated me like I was just a person. I was a tool, a carefully crafted instrument. They spoke to me respectfully and like I was made of glass.”

“Yeah and I don’t give a shit,” Malik said with a lopsided grin and finally pushed his hair from his face, pulling it back and up. 

Altair laughed. “Yes. Something like that,” he said. Altair leaned down and picked up two rocks. He handed one to Malik who took it. “Lets see who can throw further.”

“C’mon. That’s not fair at all. You have the super arm there and I’m just a scrub.”

“Just try. Lets see. On three. One. Two. Three.” Malik thought it was stupid but he did throw the rock as hard as he possibly could. It sailed a good five feet further than Altair’s rock. “See. You have a super arm too.”

Malik chuckled, “Yeah. I guess I do,” he said and looked down at their rock pile. It was empty now. But they didn’t go back into the lighthouse Instead they stood out on the bluff a while longer, watching the turbulent sea and the wispy cloud filled sky.

—

Malik woke to the sound of Altair’s voice. He was speaking softly from the living room. He couldn’t really hear what Altair was saying, only the sound of his voice. After a few seconds his curiosity got the better of him. He got out of bed as quietly as he could and went to the door. He placed his ear against the door but Altair’s voice was still too soft and muffled to be heard well. Malik pushed the door open a little.

His eyes widened a bit at what he saw. Altair was sitting in a relaxed position in the chair in front of the radio. He had several wires plugged into his forearm. The radio was on and Malik knew it wasn’t tuned to the frequency it was supposed to be tuned to because he heard soft voices he could barely make out through a static. Altair’s mouth moved only slightly but sound didn’t come out of his mouth, rather it came through the radio speakers.

Malik opened the door a bit more. Altair heard him and looked at him. “I wake you? I’m sorry. I’ll be quieter,” he said.

“What are you doing?” Malik asked.

“Seeing if I can find anyone else out there,” Altair said.

Malik stood frozen for a few seconds. “Any luck?” he asked after swallowing something in his throat that felt like anxiety.

“I don’t know,” Altair said. “The Array is gone and finding the towers that linked it together is difficult, made more so by this infernal device,” Altair smacked the radio in a very human display of frustration. “So far, no responses,” he unplugged the wires from his arm. “Go back to sleep. I’m sorry I woke you over nothing.”

“Oh. Its okay,” Malik said. “Goodnight again,” he said awkwardly and shuffled back into his room. As he closed the door he heard Altair give a long, frustrated, sigh. He went back to bed and Altair didn’t wake him again.

—

Malik waved goodbye to the final supply runner of his assignment. This was the last week. Next time he saw that stupid car he’d be getting into it and getting the hell out of this place. Foolishly he felt like he’d miss it. Well maybe not the lighthouse. Rather he’d miss Altair.

“He’s gone,” Malik announced when he went back inside. Altair came down from the stairs.

“This is your last week right?”

“Mhm,” Malik nodded enthusiastically. “And then I get to go back to Masyaf and then I have eight more months before reenlistment comes around. I don’t plan on taking it. I’m ready to get out of this shit.”

Altair smiled. “Me too.”

“So you’re leaving?”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you going?”

Altair wasn’t forthcoming immediately, “I’m not sure. I haven’t gotten _any_ replies to my calls to the nearby towers of the Array. I’m worried they’re all turned off,” he shuttered at the thought.

“You try a wider range?” Malik asked.

“I admit, this radio is difficult for me to use. I am very old and this is new. We aren’t exactly compatible,” Altair confessed. “Its been a trial of frustration more than anything.”

“Hmm. Well lets see if maybe I can’t help. I mean I’m a modern guy and you’re an antique-

“Watch it,” Altair growled a little but without a lot of heat. Malik just smirked.

“Have a seat grandpa,” Malik teased. Altair sat at the radio, half glaring at him. Malik took out the wires he’d seen Altair use several times now and rolled Altair’s sleeve up. It was the first time he’d really come into contact with Altair’s skin. It was almost rubbery in texture and very smooth, soft. Too firm to be human flesh and probably just there to give his skeleton some form and protection. He plugged the wires into the ports he could and then started fiddling with the radio.

He brought up the screen display and widened the range to maximum. Then he started dialing frequencies. Different regions of the screen lit up, showing which parts of the map was listening on those frequency based on most recent data sharing which happened on a monthly basis. “Where do you want to look?” Malik asked.

“There was a tower in this area,” Altair said and pointed on the screen. “I didn’t know you could do this,” he added.

“Yeah. Radios have advanced a lot since your day,” he teased. Malik dialed in the right frequency and couldn’t help but touch where one of the wires went into Altair’s arm afterwards, like reminding himself that Altair was actually part of the radio now. Or maybe he wanted to feel Altair’s wet suit skin. “Well. Someone out there is listening. Say something,” he prompted.

Altair said nothing. The radio started to produce static and glitch noise with half garbled words thrown in that sounded like nothing or maybe fifteen different words overlaid on top of each other all being spoken at once. Then there was silence. They waited a few seconds and the same static and glitch noise came on the speakers. Silence followed, a longer silence. “I don’t think there’s anyone there,” Altair said.

“Was that you?”

“Yes. Try here, there’s an Array compound at the edge of this area, I might be able to hail it,” Altair said, pointing.

“Okay,” Malik dialed the frequency in. Altair did his static glitch noise thing and waited. More static glitch noise. They waited. “Maybe we should try the first area again?” he suggested when Altair looked chest fallen.

“I don’t know maybe it just-

The radio cracked and squealed. Malik put his fingers in his ears. A new glitch noise came through that made the speakers crack and Malik could feel it in his skull, making his inner ear tingle uncomfortably. Then it was over. “What the hell was that?”

“That was one of them!” Altair cried excitedly. “Did you hear that? Circs did you hear what they said?”

“No. It sounded like sound trash to me,” Malik said.

“They said their name was Desmond,” Altair’s yellow eyes were so full of life for a second Malik forgot they were just glass and optics and not actual human eyes. For a second he forgot how to talk looking at them. “There’s someone out there, Malik. I’m not alone!”

“That’s great—!” he ended in a little yelp when suddenly Altair hugged him so hard he lifted Malik right off his feet.

“I’m not alone. One of the others is still active. Oh circs. This is the best news I’ve heard since we learned about the end of the war,” he squeezed Malik firmly and then put him down. He then promptly sat back down and stared intently at the radio. The speakers started cracking and sputtering in crazy noises that left Malik’s head ringing.

“Should I leave you two alone?” Malik asked.

“Ah—? Oh. If you want,” Altair said.

“Well the noise is awful, so I will. I’ll be outside if you need me.” Altair nodded and Malik left the lighthouse. He looked out at the sea. Today it was calm and green, the wind slight, the clouds like great billowing towers. He should have felt glad Altair found another droid. They were like family right? Or something like that. So why did he just feel like he was missing Altair already?

—

The day Malik was scheduled to be picked up it was raining. Not very hard, but a rain regardless.  Malik was going to be picked up in the morning and in the afternoon his replacement was going to show up for their own two month assignment. Malik had his bag packed and he was watching a show on his tablet with wifi provided by Altair waiting for his car to arrive. He looked up when Altair came out of his bedroom.

“How do I look?” Altair asked.

“Normal,” Malik said. Altair was dressed in civilian clothes. A hoodie for long sleeves to hide the plugs on his forearm and a pair of jeans two sizes too big held up by a belt that looked like it was cinched to the last hole. Malik had asked the delivery guy to bring him some of his civi clothes from the base and now he was letting Altair take some of them. It was the first time he’d seen Altair in anything but his old military uniform. Without the crisp, clean, cut of the uniform or the ugly color with the perfectly tailored cuffs and stiff collar Altair looked hot.

“I hope you don’t mind,” Altair said, holding a hat of Malik’s.

“Its fine,” Malik shrugged. Altair pulled the beanie on over his regulation hair cut that would never not be regulation. Like the rest of Malik’s clothes the beanie was too big and sagged in the back more than it would have on Malik’s head. Altair looked like a seventies hoodlum now, with the saggy pants, the hoodie and beanie, all covering his body. Except for his shiny leather shoes. Those were still regulation. Still perfect and pure.

“You sure? These are yours.”

“I can get more. You look good like that. You looked more like a robot in that uniform. Now you just look like-

“Like?”

“A guy,” Malik said and Altair laughed.

“I’ll wait till you leave before I go. No need to make you wait alone,” Altair said and sat with him.

“You excited to meet him?” Malik asked, “Your brother?” Altair had declared that Desmond was a brother in the grand scheme of things. So Malik referred to them as brothers.

“Yes,” Altair said, smiling. “Its going to be a long walk though.”

“You’ll be fine,” Malik said.

“Mhm! I have that rain coat, and an umbrella. This rain is nothing.”

Malik grinned, “That’s the spirit.”

“When’s your ride supposed to get here?”

“Any minute,” Malik said, glancing at the clock on his tablet.

“Second,” Altair said.

“Hmm?”

“Any second. I see their light beams,” Altair said, looking out the window.

“Oh. So they are,” Malik said. He put his tablet away and got up with a grunt. Altair got up with him. “What are you going to do after you find Desmond?” he asked.

“Look for others, probably,” Altair said. “Desmond proves we’re all not sleeping or shut off. There have to be others out there. Right?”

“Could be,” Malik nodded. “What about after that?”

Altair didn’t reply right away. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I guess I’ll figure that out when I get there.”

“Maybe you should come find me next. After I get out of this shitty service job,” Malik said and his hand reached out and grabbed Altair’s. Altair said nothing. In fact his eyes looked unfocused, like he wasn’t paying attention. “You okay?”

“Yes,” Altair said. “I was just looking at something on the internet.”

“The internet?” Malik demanded sharply, insulted. “For what?”

“For what you’re supposed to do in situations like this.”

“Yeah? And what’s the internet say to do?” Malik tried not to snarl.

“I think it goes like this,” Altair said. Malik started when Altair leaned over to him and put his weird rubbery lips on Malik’s. He hadn’t expected Altair to _get it_ but was pleasantly surprised regardless. It was a light kiss, like a promise and made Malik’s chest swell. “Though you are the idiot who has feelings for a robot.”

“Says the fucking robot who has fucking feelings,” Malik said and they both laughed. Altair leaned his forehead on Malik’s, his skin was smooth and soft and felt nice on Malik’s. “I guess I can go looking for you after I find some more of my family.”

“That’d be nice,” Malik said and they both heard the car pull up to the lighthouse. “Well, this is stupid.”

“Yeah,” Altair agreed. “What a mess you got yourself into, Malik. Came here because of a mess, and now leaving with another.”

“I’ll live,” Malik said. “But I mean it. You should look for me when you’re done on your quest or whatever.”

“I will,” Altair said and Malik kissed him again lightly. This time it _was_ a promise. Outside the car honked impatiently. “You should go,” Altair said.

“Don’t take too long,” Malik said. “I’m gonna get old.”

Altair laughed a little, “I won’t,” Altair promised.

“Tell your brothers and sisters I said hello.”

“I will,” Altair said. They stood there for a second more, hesitating. “What? Want another kiss goodbye?”

“Would it kill ‘ya?” Altair chuckled and they kissed one last time before the car honked again. “Alright alright, I’m coming. Jeesh. No sympathy for a romantic moment at all.”

“Nope,” Altair said, smiling, but his eyes were sort of sad.

“I’ll see you soon,” Malik said.

“Yeah,” Altair nodded. 

Malik then grabbed his bag and left, turning off the lights after him. He ducked like that could help him avoid the rain and ran to the passenger seat. He threw himself into the car and tossed his pack into the back seat.

“The hell took you al-Sayf?” the driver asked.

“Sorry, I couldn’t find something.”

“Well you get it?”

“Yeah,” Malik said.

“Okay. Ready to get back to Masyaf?”

“Not really. I had a nice vacation out here.” 

The driver laughed. “Oh yeah? No one else ever does. They fucking hate it out here.” The driver put the car into gear and started driving away from the lighthouse. 

Malik turned in his seat to watch the lighthouse go. He saw Altair in the window, watching him go. “I just found things to keep myself entertained is all,” Malik said and then they were driving down the bluff and the bottom of the lighthouse was lost in the rain and the land.

-fin-

**Author's Note:**

> Visit [this page](http://almualimbeatbox.tumblr.com/comm) to learn about a potential sequel if you really want one.


End file.
